toybunovel Chapter 179: Outside
Chapter 179: Outside
Meanwhile, William and the others were entirely unaware of this and were currently outside the school premises.
Seraphina had asked if they could visit the popular steam bath nearby, and since it sounded like a good idea, he agreed. Kai and the others tagged along, including his seemingly new partner from the incident with Derek.
The steam bath house was called Mireille’s, which was either the name of the person who had founded it or simply a word someone had decided sounded appropriate for a place where people went to be warm and unbothered.
It sat at the edge of the town district that bordered the academy’s western grounds, close enough to walk to in twenty minutes and far enough that the academy’s ambient essence concentration dropped away and the air felt different, the particular lightness of a place that wasn’t saturated with cultivation energy.
Seraphina had mentioned it on Sunday evening, in the casual way she sometimes mentioned things that she had already decided on and was presenting as suggestions out of politeness.
"There’s a steam bath house on the western outskirts," she had said. "I’m going Monday morning before classes."
"Classes start at nine," William had said.
"I know when classes start."
He had looked at her. She had looked back with the expression that meant the statement was complete and she wasn’t going to add to it.
"What time," he had said.
"Seven."
"I’ll come."
That was how it had started. By the time Monday morning arrived the group had expanded in the gradual way that plans expanded when people heard about them and the general atmosphere of the post-competition week made saying no feel unnecessary.
Kai had agreed with the specific quality he brought to agreeing to things, which was that he said yes once and then simply appeared at the designated time without further discussion.
Liam had said yes immediately and enthusiastically and had told Marcus, who had told Sara, who had mentioned it to Lin.
Lin Feng had been part of the expedition. She had created the water serpent in the dungeon that had saved the support section.
Since coming back she had been in the peripheral orbit of their expanded group without fully entering it, the specific position of someone who had shared something significant with people and wasn’t sure whether the shared thing was sufficient basis for the friendship that followed.
Sara had simply said, "Lin should come," and that had resolved it.
So there were seven of them walking the western path at six forty-five on a Monday morning, the academy receding behind them, the town district coming into view ahead.
William walked beside Seraphina. Behind them, Kai moved in the quiet way he moved through most things, and Lin was beside him, which had developed naturally over the twenty-minute walk in the way that things developed when two people who were both more comfortable with less noise found each other in a group context.
Liam was explaining something to Sara and Marcus that required gestures, which meant he was explaining it with his whole body, which meant the three of them occupied slightly more of the path than was strictly necessary.
The morning was clear. The fog was fully gone. The air on this side of the academy wall had the clean quality of early autumn before the season fully committed to cold, the temperature sitting in the specific range where being outside felt good rather than either too warm or too chilly.
Seraphina walked with her hands in her jacket pockets and her shoulder at an angle that William had learned to read as the shoulder feeling better than yesterday but not fully resolved.
She wasn’t managing it visibly. She was simply carrying it as a fact and moving through it.
"Have you been here before," he said.
"Twice. Once in first year with some girls from my house, once alone." She looked at the path ahead. "Alone was better."
"And now you’re bringing six people."
"Now the circumstances are different." She said it without elaborating, which was its own kind of elaboration.
He let it settle.
Behind them, Liam’s explanation reached some kind of conclusion that produced a sound from Marcus that was either agreement or resignation. Sara said something that made both of them laugh. The specific ease of people who had been through an intense shared experience and had come out of it with their relationships intact and, in most cases, stronger than before.
Lin said something quiet to Kai that William didn’t catch. Kai responded in the same register. Whatever it was, the exchange had the quality of two people finding an actual conversation rather than social performance, which was the specific thing that Kai almost never produced in group contexts.
William noted it without remarking on it.
The steam bath house appeared at the edge of the path as they came around the last curve of the town boundary. It was a low building, wider than it was tall, with a wooden facade that had been treated to weather the seasons and a sign above the entrance that simply said Mireille’s in the kind of lettering that had been there long enough to become part of the building.
A few people were already inside. Through the entrance they could see the main reception area, steam visible beyond the inner doors, the particular atmosphere of a place that existed specifically for the purpose of being warm and quiet.
The attendant at the reception desk was a middle-aged woman with the patient efficiency of someone who spent her days managing people who arrived wanting to relax and sometimes needed help getting there.
She looked at the seven of them. "Group."
"Yes," Seraphina said.
"We have two communal rooms available this morning. The cedar room fits four comfortably, the stone room fits six. Or you can do both and move between them."
"Stone room," Seraphina said. "All seven."
"It’ll be tight."
"We survived a competition week. We’ll manage."
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